The Magnet team remains focused on tracking key developments in the market from the past week. We witnessed a blend of challenges and opportunities, with key events unfolding around Solana, Ripple, and Telegram. All this and more in this week’s Weekly Web3 Digest!
The crypto market is moving in sync with global macro trends, heavily influenced by geopolitical tensions and inflation worries. The Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates between 4.25%–4.50% shows a cautious approach, even as inflation projections rise. Bitcoin’s growing correlation with U.S. stocks has many crypto traders closely monitoring economic signals for potential shifts ahead. However, despite the buzz around events like the FOMC announcement and Trump’s Digital Summit speech, market reaction has been underwhelming, with Trump's comments on crypto reserves and stablecoin regulations not sparking much excitement.
Bitcoin ownership is shifting, with institutional investors, corporations, and governments increasing their stakes. By February 2025, 14% of Bitcoin’s supply is now controlled by ETFs, corporate balance sheets, and government wallets, tightening supply and setting up for major price movements when demand picks up.
In a major turn of events, the SEC has dropped its appeal and lawsuit against Ripple Labs, ending a five-year legal battle. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse celebrated this victory, which began in 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple of an unregistered securities offering through XRP sales. Despite a 2023 ruling in Ripple's favor, the SEC pressed on. Now, with the lawsuit dropped, Ripple gains regulatory clarity, setting a significant precedent for digital asset classification in the U.S. With legal hurdles cleared, Ripple is ready to shape the future of crypto regulations and accelerate adoption.
Solana’s 5th anniversary kicked off with controversy, as its "America is Back—Time to Accelerate" ad quickly sparked a strong backlash from the crypto community.The ad was quickly pulled, igniting a heated debate within the crypto community over the positioning and messaging of large-scale blockchain projects. On top of that, gas fee revenue hit a six-month low, and the Solana memecoin rally fizzled out, leaving SOL prices down nearly 50% from their January highs. However, there’s a silver lining. Circle minted $250 million in USDC on Solana, bringing much-needed liquidity to the network. The first Solana futures ETF is also set to launch this week, which could boost institutional interest. Meanwhile, Tron is now officially available on Solana’s blockchain, although its impact may be more significant for Tron than Solana itself.
Despite market uncertainty, Telegram is positioning itself for long-term success. With over 1 billion monthly active users, it’s now the world’s second most popular messaging app (just behind WeChat), and last year, it generated an impressive $547M in profit. Adding Elon Musk’s AI bot Grok to its platform only increases its value, bringing fresh innovation to its already massive user base. Meanwhile, the TON Foundation raised over $400M in Toncoin sales, supported by top investors like Sequoia and Draper. Their ambitious goal? Onboard 30% of Telegram's users to the TON blockchain in the next three years. It’s clear: Telegram is setting itself up to capitalize on the next market wave.
After a hectic January, where PumpFun saw an average of 17,000 tokens launching daily, something surprising happened: for the first time, no new tokens launched in 24 hours. Out of the 8.7 million tokens created, only four managed to maintain a market cap above $100 million. In response, PumpFun is stepping up with PumpSwap, a new DEX that makes token migrations seamless, offers free transfers, and improves liquidity. But will this be enough to reignite the meme coin craze, or is the industry shifting focus? Raydium is also jumping into the meme coin scene with its own LaunchLab—could this be the right time for a fresh start?The Magnet team continues to keep a close eye on the ever-changing landscape of the Web3 space. Stay tuned for next week's update to keep up with the latest trends and insights!
